Daniela Silivas (ROM)

Romanian newspapers were plastered with photos of Nadia
Comaneci during the late 1970s. In the background of one of these photos
stood tiny Viorica Daniela Silivas. The caption read, "Handover of a
baton - Will this girl take over the baton from Nadia?" Silivas would
not disappoint, establishing a career that made her one of Romania's
most successful gymnasts.

Silivas was born on May 9, 1972, however competed under a passport listing her age as 1970. Admitting to the press of this age change only in 2002, Silivas attributed the controversy to the many
post-1984 Olympics retirements which left Romania with insufficient age eligible girls for the 1985 World Championships.

Silivas began gymnastics at school No. 7,
training under Ion Carbinecean. A native of Deva, she quickly moved to the
national training center when it was first founded. She won the school's
championships in 1980, and in 1981 was the Romanian Junior National champion.
She retained this title in 1982, adding golds in vault, beam, and floor
finals. Whereas most Eastern bloc countries used the Junior Friendship
Tournament (Druzhba) meets to debut their top talents, Silivas instead jumped
directly to the prestigious International Japan Junior competition. She won
the meet by over a full point, and sparkled on floor, where she scored a meet
high 9.850 in finals.

Silivas gained a wealth of experience in 1984,
competing against top seniors in numerous invitationals. She medalled in all
competitions in which she was entered, including the Blume Memorial (1st AA),
Coca Cola International (2nd AA, 3rd UB, 3rd BB), Moscow News (1st BB), Paris
Grand Prix (2nd AA, 1st BB), and Riga International (2nd AA, 1st V, 1st FX,
2nd UB, 2nd BB). She would have had the 1984 Junior European title bagged,
were it not for vault. At only 130 cm "tall," it was difficult for
young Silivas to get over the horse!

Silivas continued to travel the globe in 1985.
Competing officially as a senior, she announced herself as a Worlds medal
contender by winning bronze on floor at the 1985 Europeans in Helsinki. As
expected, Silivas was one of the darlings of the 1985 Worlds, contributing to
her team's silver medal, placing a respectable 7th in the all-around, and
reigning on beam.

The World Cup in
Beijing, China took center stage in terms of events in 1986. Silivas and
Soviet Elena Shushunova competed neck-in-neck, tied on three events combined.
Vault proved to be the differentiator, Shushunova outperforming Silivas in a
preview of what would follow in Seoul two years later.

Competing on Soviet
territory, Silivas reigned supreme at the 1987 European Championships. She
topped her gold medal in the AA with golds on bars, beam, and floor. She took
silver on vault.

As the reigning
European champion, Silivas was considered the favourite for the World title
later that year. Sadly, a stumble on beam during team optionals (at the
time these scores carried over into the AA), and a less-than-stellar bar
routine, cost her the AA crown. Rotterdam wasn't void of happy memories
however; the Romanian team reigned triumphant over the dominant Soviet women,
capturing the gold medal in the team competition. Silivas was also awarded an
amazing five perfect tens in Rotterdam, a tribute to her supremacy. Two of
these tens were awarded on floor, earning her the floor title with a perfect
20.0 score.

The Romanian women
were under tremendous pressure in Seoul to retain their team title, but fell
short. In what proved to be an "edge of your seat" battle, Silivas
and Shushunova answered one another's perfect routines with ones of their own
during the all-around competition. Silivas' floor routine was particularly
stunning, naturally scoring a perfect 10.0. Fittingly, this routine marked the
100th perfect ten in Olympic history.

The all-around
competition came down to the vault, in which Shushunova managed to edge out a
devastated Silivas. Proving herself to be a true champion, Silivas returned in
the event finals with vengeance, capturing three golds (UB, BB, and FX) and
one silver (V).

Silivas continued
past Seoul, but 1989 proved to be a difficult year. Nursing a knee injury, she
was not quite up to par for the World Championships in Stuttgart. Although
still a favourite for the AA competition, seconds before mounting the balance
beam, Silivas glanced over to see Boguinskaya's perfect 10. Knowing that the
gold was out of reach, a disheartened Silivas appeared to give up, falling off
beam. She finished 12th AA, and Boguinskaya first. Again however, she bounced
back in the event finals with shine, capturing gold on bars, beam, and
floor.

Romania suffered a
political revolution in 1989 which altered all facets of life, including the
treasured gymnastics program at Deva. The girls' training suffered greatly,
not good for the struggling Silivas. In early 1990 she flew to France for a
much need operation on her knee, financed by the French gymnastics federation.
(In exchange, members of the French national team were invited to train at
Deva, now recovering from the effects of the Revolution).

Although the 1990
World Cup in Brussels, Belgium was on her mind, training time lost due to the
Revolution and knee surgery forced Silivas into retirement. She spent a year
at the University of Bucharest before accepting an invitation from family
friends to move to the United States. She arrived in NYC on August 26, 1991.

These friends, Justin
and Zenovaia Ivanchiu, former Romanian sports acro gymnasts, owned a club in
Atlanta, Georgia. Silivas helped the Ivanchius with their coaching. Soon
after, to the delight of long time fans, she also competed in the 1991 World
Professional Championships. At the time, Silivas actually hoped to compete for
the Georgia Gym Dawgs. The University of Georgia offered her a scholarship,
but it was contingency on English proficiency, a skill that she had not yet
mastered.

In 1992 the Ivanchius
opened a gym (the Universal Gymnastics Training Center) in a suburb of Atlanta
and Silivas began coaching at this gym. She also began working with the
Olympic committee on preparations for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Silivas now works as
the chief manager at Hammond Park Gymnastics in Atlanta, GA, and as team coach
at Modern Gymnastics in Marietta, GA. In 2002, she was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

Silivas and her husband Scott Harper, a graduate in sports management (2001),
married May 24, 2003. "It wasn't love at first sight, we were friends first,"
Silivas told Romanian newspaper Monitorul de Sibiu. "After a couple of
months we realized that we were meant for each other." The ceremony in the
USA will be followed by another at Cetate Deva, in Romania in July. Included on
the guest list are Silivas' former coaches Adrian Goreac, Octavian Belu, and
also Mariana Bitang.

Daniela and Scott have one child, son Jaden Scott born April 8th 2004.
She is rumoured to be expected their second.

. This page was created on May 18, 2001 and last updated August, 2005.